After 40 years of helping Hollywood insiders with their financial needs, Martha Henderson is set to retire from her post as vice chairman of entertainment banking for City National Bank.
Henderson is credited with vastly expanding City National’s activity across the film, TV, music, theater and other media sectors. She oversaw the opening of City National offices in Atlanta and Nashville in 2011 and in Miami in 2019. She has long been recognized as a top player in entertainment banking, earning recognition on power lists from Variety and Billboard. In 2017, Barron’s dubbed her “the most powerful banker in Hollywood.”
“Martha leaves a legacy of City National leaders poised to move the business and industry forward thanks to her long-standing commitment to colleague development and client focus,” said City National CEO Howard Hammond.
Henderson joined City National, now a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, in 1983 from Wells Fargo, where she began her career in entertainment. At the time, City National had only a handful of bankers focused on the entertainment industry. In recent years, Henderson has focused on the leadership transition that led to the appointment last year of Kelly Coffey as CEO of City National Entertainment. JaHan Wang executive VP of entertainment banking, worked closely with Henderson for years prior to his promotion early last year.
Over the course of her long career, the industry’s needs have become increasingly complex, Henderson told Variety: “In my early years, I would speak to various studios about their film budgets, and City National would lend to various projects … Today, the expectations from artists, producers and studios have sped up. Banks now have to deliver more complex financial products on a rapid timeline.”
Coffey hailed Henderson for having long “personified” the bank’s commitment to the unique needs to the entertainment industry and creative community. “Her decades of leadership and the profound impact she has had are felt throughout the organization,” Coffey said.
Henderson serves on the boards of the Friends of the Saban Community Clinic and the Geffen Playhouse. She’s also a longtime supporter of Project Angel Food and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles.
